OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The Omaha Public Library along with several of its partner organizations is looking to the community for feedback, including a survey, to determine the future of what will be included inside its branches.
The library also expects to announce around five or six community events to influence the 2023 "Library Facilities Plan," said Assistant Library Director Rachel Steiner to 3 News Now.
The survey is available at OPLsurey.org and at OPLencuesta.org in Spanish, or on paper at any branch.
"We want people to dream and dream big because libraries really are about community gathering," Steiner said.
Steiner said they want to hear from people who don't frequent Omaha's libraries.
"What would we need to add to our library spaces for you to come in and use it?" Steiner asked. "If that is a business center ... a quilting room. Whatever your heart desires, put on the (survey)."
The survey will run until the end of April and results will be released before the end of June.
Involved in the process are non-profits Heritage Omaha and Do Space.
Heritage Omaha has been heavily involved in the library's transformational announcements over the last year, including funding the bulk of the city's yet-to-be-built Central Library at 72nd and Dodge Streets.
Do Space resides at the site of the central library project and will be integrated into the public library and its branches, Steiner said.
New York design firm Margaret Sullivan Studios is also involved. Steiner said they are helping run the survey and can provide a "more neutral eye" to the results.
Steiner said the survey is not about where libraries are located or the central library project. She said that was part of a 2017 project.
"Omaha's doing pretty good other than we need more libraries in our west as we grow in population and grow in where our people are located," Steiner said. "But we never really looked at what are we doing in this space."
"We really want to know what people want inside the library," she said. "The survey is going to focus on what could you see that we already have and you maybe don't want us to ever modify, but more importantly, what do we not have that you would love to see in your branch? And then hopefully we can implement them in the future."
Steiner pointed to the central library's expected automatic retrieval system as a door for unique opportunities in libraries. Books would be stored in a condensed fashion to allow the library to make room for creative use of its space without trimming its collection, she said.
"(Books in the automatic retrieval system) can still be accessed, just ... it'll take a day instead of a moment to get it," she said.
Despite the proximity of the Swanson branch to the central library expected at 72nd and Dodge, Steiner said there are no plans to close to branch.
"As far as I know at any conversation I'm in, it will remain a branch," she said. "What it looks like could transform (based on community feedback) ... We also realize even though the central library will be very close, there is something near and dear to people's hearts when they have a branch that they can call their own."
See the full press release below:
Omaha Public Library (OPL), Omaha Public Library Foundation, the City of Omaha, Do Space, and Heritage Omaha are working together with the Omaha community and Margaret Sullivan Studios (MSS), a nationally recognized library expert and design firm that specializes in civic projects, to develop a community-driven 2023 Library Facilities Plan.
The 2023 Library Facilities Plan will offer recommendations for present and future OPL facilities. The plan will include each library branch’s size, location and design, and ensure that those branches continue to support the collections, programs, technologies, activities and amenities community members value.
The plan will also envision future Do Space spaces and programming in partnership with OPL, and align Do Space services with Omaha’s digital equity needs and the needs of the city’s entrepreneurs and makers.
A new 2023 community survey launched on Feb. 15 at OPLSurvey.org focuses on Douglas County’s 12 branch libraries and what community needs look like in each of those diverse Omaha neighborhoods.
Feedback received during this process will be used to shape the future of OPL and Do Space services, spaces and more. The community survey will be open for responses until May 1, 2023.
Paper copies are available in English and Spanish at each OPL branch and Do Space. A Spanish version of the survey is available online at OPLEncuesta.org.
A series of neighborhood-focused community engagement opportunities will begin in March. More information on dates, times and locations for those opportunities is coming soon.
Since the completion of the 2017 Facilities Plan update, there have been significant changes at OPL. These changes include responding to evolving community needs during the pandemic; a new downtown branch location; launch of design development for a new central public library at 72nd and Dodge streets; and the ongoing evolution of a 21st-century service model, prioritizing active public spaces and the integration of traditional library services with innovative technology services through a new partnership with Omaha’s Do Space technology library.
The historic investment in a new world-class central library for the City of Omaha is now underway — including a state-of-the-art automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) Collections Hub, and the integration of nationally acclaimed Do Space programs and services.
This offers OPL an exceptional opportunity to harness momentum for reimagining library facilities to serve Omaha’s diverse communities. This citywide Library Facilities Plan will build on the recommendations of previous facilities planning, take into account the City’s objectives to ensure equity, and be informed by the community’s input.
“The plan’s recommendations and future funding investments will be rooted in the community’s needs and aspirations,” said Margaret Sullivan, principal at MSS.
The foundation for the Library Facilities Plan will be built using research, community engagement and key stakeholder input, continually viewed through the lens of the system’s established vision and strategic impact goals. Research and engagement conducted at the beginning of the process help to build plans that analyze the current state of operations and forecast future needs.
From there, the system develops practical, actionable strategies for how to meet long-term goals, including considerations for services, spaces, books, technology and staffing.
Project and community partners will present on initial community engagement findings and the developing 2023 Library Facilities Plan at a Community Share Out in May 2023. Stay tuned for more event details.
OPL will publish the final 2023 Library Facilities Plan on its website in June 2023.
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